Are Republicans Attacking Lloyd Austin Because He's Black?

It has nothing to do with national security, that's for sure!

More than a week after news broke that Lloyd Austin was hospitalized without the White House’s knowledge, Republicans are still aiming their tiki torches pitchforks at his throat.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) said Friday he’ll "strongly consider" pursuing articles of impeachment against defense secretary Austin. GOP Reps Mills (R-Fla) and Jeff Duncan (R-SC) co-wrote a letter with Rosendale to Austin demanding he resign. Even DEI bounty hunter and nemesis-of-all-Black-women-smarter-than-her Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) joined the chorus.

For his part, Austin released a public statement Jan. 6 addressing the scrutiny.  

"I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better.But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure."

Austin underwent surgery for prostate cancer that led to complications and is recovering at Walter Reed. But the man showed up to work everyday from the hospital, even attending meetings concerning U.S. and U.K. strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen.

None of this matters to his critics. Republicans and a lone Democrat want the first Black secretary of defense gone. But is it a Black thing, though?

My homegirl and political commentator extraordinaire Ameshia Cross seems to think so. She summed up the GOP attacks against Austin in a Newsweek column as a wider attack against Black folk holding seats of power in which their competence is constantly questioned.

Journalist and foreign affairs expert Marc Lamont Hill laid out nuanced take, arguing his failure to notify the White House presents national security and political consequences, while acknowledging the racial dynamics—including the absurdities. 

I asked a buddy of mine who served as a senior Obama appointee in the defense department about this. He brushed off the reactions, saying “that’s why there’s a deputy defense secretary” and that “there are many contingency mechanisms in place.” In short. It ain’t that deep.

Here’s my take: they’re all correct.

It’s not unreasonable to conclude that the Republicans’ war against DEI will protract into a challenge of Austin’s pedigree to serve. They turned inconsequential academic citation errors of ex-Harvard president Claudine Gay into crusades against affirmative action, insincere concerns over anti-semitism and her competence. That’s not to say having the secretary of defense out of action without notifying the White House isn’t a lapse of judgment that shouldn’t be repeated. Biden admitted as much. 

But it should not cost the man his job.

Let’s be clear. The GOP’s fervor against Austin has little to do with upholding the integrity of national security.

The very people calling for him to quit enthusiastically endorse Trump: the biggest national security threat to the United States ever to vie for the Oval Office. Trump, in one presidential term, lead an insurrection against the U.S. government, took foreign money from our adversaries, tried to pressured a sitting governor into falsifying election results, pressed Ukraine’s president to investigate his political opponent’s son, grossly mishandled classified documents, turned the White House into a shameless kleptocracy, among many of his authoritarian crimes.

And let’s not get into the 91 felony counts he’s facing in multiple jurisdictions.

You really think a Black man would still have the gall to run for office with that rap sheet? No. But Trump’s a privileged, arrogant white man who jerks off Republicans’ white supremacist wet dreams, so he’s fine so long as he defends their whiteness they feel is under attack—the country be damned

Black folks see the hypocrisy with Austin. That’s why we see them going for Gay’s head, but are silent about Bill Ackman’s wife.

Of course race is a factor. But there’s another layer to this.

The New York Times published a piece this morning outlining the cultural labyrinths Austin navigates as a Black man and how that informs his privacy. Rep. James Clyborn (D-S.C.) told The Times the experience of Black men coming home from war to face discrimination taught them to reveal as little as possible about themselves if they wanted to succeed. 

I’d add that not showing perceived signs of weakness is part of that self-preservation. We don’t know what was inside Austin’s mind when he decided to keep his health issues private. But I can totally see him wanting to prove that nothing—not even a serious health issue—can keep him off the job. Had he disclosed his health issues, I can also see how that would’ve still invited scrutiny from the far-right forces actively challenging Black professional fitness.

In a more sane and truly bi-partisan world, the focus on Austin’s judgment should be more about rectifying communications procedures than trivializing his absence for political theater. He is a key piece of the military chain-of-command involving nuclear weapons decisions. Yeah sure. A world-altering event could’ve happened while he was under the knife and he’d be unreachable.

Here’s the bottom line: it didn’t. 

Given how private a man Austin is, I’m not sure we’ll ever know the reasoning behind him keeping his medical procedure private. But, as a Black man myself, I understand why he would. It is totally plausible to me that he’d keep his surgery secret to abide by a key tenant of Black Excellence: don’t make excuses. 

We have to be twice as good to get half as far. That includes working through the very pain that disproportionate claims Black men’s lives at more than double the rate of men of other races. It’s a generational struggle we all as Black people endure and work through. Papa Pope told us as much.

So, trust me. I get it.

That value, however, clashes with his very public duty to notify his bosses of any potential issues that could not only jeopardize his duties to serve, but unleash a tidal wave of political heat at the president in a very racially-polarizing election cycle. In an effort to possibly uphold the ethos that Black people don’t make excuses, he may have indirectly given Republicans fodder to renew their attacks on the very Black Excellence he wanted to exemplify and that could not protect Gay.

I don’t know. I’m just speculating as a Black person who can appreciate why he may have thought that. Until Austin talks about it one day–if ever–we won’t know for sure. 

None of this reasoning undermines very real questions about how the national security apparatus works when its top military officer is in the middle of a surgery, nor does it discount sincere calls for accountability. White House chief of staff Jeff Zients ordered all cabinet members to submit procedures outlining protocols in the event of their absences. 

That’s really as far as this should go. 

But instead of operating in bi-partisan good faith to better tighten communication protocols that will better educate the public and reassure them the ship will continue sailing no matter who is steering it, Republicans are out on another witch hunt that, again, targets a Black person for reasons that clearly aren’t about their ability to perform.

Let’s be real: Republicans would’ve come after Austin if he was white. (Some of these fools are calling for Biden’s impeachment and are attacking his son in ways that are disproportionate to how they target their own ilk for far worse crimes—like inciting an insurrection. But their venom for people of color is far worse. These MAGA Republicans are a diabolical bunch. They’ve long been attacking Black competence like its hunting season. So it’s perfectly reasonable for us to conclude they’re priming to target Austin next in their ongoing pseudo campaign against DEI and anything Black.

We see the tiki torches coming from miles away.